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Red Sox discovering the Terry Francona Way wasn't that bad after all

They went 180 degrees in the other direction when 10 or 20 would have sufficed.

Perhaps the biggest misstep this Red Sox ownership group has ever made was highlighted in Cleveland Tuesday night. That was the image of Terry Francona.

Let's get this out of the way: the chaos of 2011 and all that followed might have been tempered if the Red Sox picked up Francona's option in August, then addressing whatever concerns they might have had when the season was all said and done. They didn't. Instead the strategy was to go as far away from the second-winningest manager in franchise history as possible in the form of Bobby Valentine.

It's unfair to classify John Farrell as a Francona clone. They are different people. Different managers. But they are seemingly similar in the ways that are most important when it comes to running a baseball club in Boston. Tito had figured it out, and that wasn't lost on Farrell.

One small example was when it came to informing players the night before a game if they were going to be in the lineup. It was a Francona staple, and it worked. The players appreciated the ability to get in the proper mindset before heading to the park. But when the topic was broached with Valentine last season, the manager would give off a "Why would I ever do that?" sort of response. In fact, he would head to the opposite end of the spectrum and often not post a lineup until well after the first wave of players had arrived.

Valentine's defense would be that there were so many injuries that it was difficult to slot in the starters. But that only held water some of the time. Certainly when the catchers are still wondering at 3:45 p.m. who will be that day's starting pitcher's battery-mate it's probably the kind of communication that should be attempted to avoid at all costs.

Now, however, the Francona-induced protocol has returned.

The night before a game, bench coach Torey Lovullo will either inform the players of their status for the next day in person or go the cell phone route. It's a seemingly small thing, but symbolic and, by the players' accounts, effective.

"Just kind of their temperament. The way they talk to players. Preparation. The way they handle the media. All very similar. They're pretty much the same," Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester said of the similarities between Francona and Farrell. "They stay out of the way and let players play. When guys need to be communicated with they do it. If you classify managers as player-managers, he's a good player-manager. The biggest thing for me is how well-prepared the whole staff is, and that's how it was when Tito was here. From the top down to the last guy, everybody knows what page we're on."

You could always argue whether or not Francona's moves were the right ones, but it would have been tough to dig in on the opinion that he didn't get it when it came to laying the all-important foundation. There is the importance of leaning on his coaches (along with things like integrating them all in his footwear contracts). The understanding that players, to a certain degree, need to police themselves. And a willingness to morph instincts with statistical analysis.

They're qualities that, according to those who there for both Francona and Farrell, have returned to the Red Sox' clubhouse.

"I just know that they have a lot of similarities how they control the dugout, how they control the situation," said Lovullo, who played for Francona while also serving as the Red Sox' Triple-A manager during Tito's penultimate year in Boston. "I think everybody does see the similarities. They're also very close to running the game the same way. I think John paid a lot of attention to the way Tito did things. I think they're both player-managers. Guys can communicate with them. I think they have a lot of the same characteristics. I can't really pinpoint any big differences. It's very similar.

"I felt very comfortable around [Francona]. I felt very comfortable about being myself. And I think John tries to create the same feeling. Tito was a great feel guy, being on top of when to do things on top of being ready with what the numbers were showing him. He has an innate ability to combine those, and I think John has that same characteristic that he's just starting to harness."

And then there is perhaps the one quality that may be of the utmost importance, something that was Francona's calling card and became anything but a priority last season -- communication.

"It's big," Lester said. "In today's media-crazy world, communication is big. You want to hear it from the horse's mouth. You don't want to hear it from you guys. I think that's a big respect thing as far as the manager to the player. If there's going to be a move made, I would like to be the first one to know and that way I'm prepared when they do tell the media. That's important. Back in the day things were handled differently, and I think Tito adapted. Tito always did a good job of that. I would imagine John will do the same when things arise here."

For that one year the Red Sox might have blind to the importance of Francona's way of doing things, but the baseball world hadn't been. It was a perception that certainly helped when leading Seattle and Pittsburgh (twice) to ask Farrell to interview for managerial jobs. (As was the case when Kansas City inquired about him interviewing for a pitching coach position, Farrell chose to not participate in all of the aforementioned interviews because he had no intention of taking any of the jobs.) And when Toronto hired the former Sox pitching coach, it didn't hurt that he had been immersed in Francona's way of doing things.

But while the quick and easy answer when asking those in the Red Sox' clubhouse how close Francona and Farrell are to mirroring each other is that they're dead-on duplications, that's not entirely accurate. They are obviously different personalities, and they also have somewhat alternate approaches when it comes to managing an actual baseball game.

Farrell is going to try and extract runs through the running game, having been influenced by his days as a pitcher and pitching coach, when he experienced the discomfort of teams pushing the envelope on the basepaths.

Take, for example, Dustin Pedroia's steal off of Tampa Bay starter Alex Cobb Sunday. It was just the first inning, the second baseman had singled and Cobb was known for doing a fairly solid job of limiting the running game. But the Red Sox had done their homework, identified a plan heading into the matchup, and made sure they didn't shy away from executing it.

"I think that," Lovullo said, "set the tone."

"The biggest difference between Tito and John is that John wants to put pressure on the opposition any time he can," the bench coach added. "You can see it. There's a strategy of what we're trying to do out there. Not to say that Tito doesn't do it in his own special way, but John has his own distinct pattern as to what he wants to do."

It's not exactly the same, but it's close enough. For the Red Sox, one year of leaving the Francona Way was enough. It's back, and, judging by the early returns, better than it has been in some time.

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